"A Thankstaking Story": Good News?

Earlier this week I was listening to a wonderful Thanksgiving show from one of my favorite radio dramas. It was funny, heart-warming, and the occasional moment even brought tears to my eyes. I was entranced from beginning to end, wrapped up in the drama and loving how well-written the characters were.

The only problem for this review is that the show wasn't "A Thankstaking Story," but rather an episode of Down Gilead Lane called "Peas and Thank You." "A Thankstaking Story," like "Peas and Thank You," attempted to be funny and heart-warming, but unlike the DGL episode failed to achieve its goal for the most part.

Perhaps the real issue for me is that I had expected more from this episode. "Dr. Suess visits Odyssey" gets old really fast, and it's obvious that a knowledge of the book The Grinch That Stole Christmas (or, more likely, the movie version of the book) would've helped make the show funnier. But even so, the humor of the Scrunch story was more over-the-top than anything, with silly sound effects, an excess of made-up words, and too many jokes that didn't work for me. Once again, maybe I needed more pop-culture savvy to appreciate the jokes, but the maturity level of some of the story did seem a bit Wootonish.

I'm quite a fan of musicals, when they're done right, so my expectations for the musical element of this show were high as well. There's only four songs in the show, and they're of varying quality. "Good News" is pretty good (better than the majority of songs on Eugene Sings!, if that's saying anything), and "Every Day Is Thanksgiving Day" isn't bad either (overlooking the buzzy bees line, it's probably the best of the show). "We Are the Bad Guys" is short, and that's probably it's one redeeming element. Which leaves "McGluville was a Tiny Village" (by Wooton/ Arctic Blast), a truly strange song. Wooton sang fine in "Odyssey Sings," but here his singing sounds more like Jess Harnell trying to spoof Elvis, which is totally unfunny. And hard to understand, if you actually like to be able to understand the words in songs. So my expectations for the songs were too high, but John Campbell really did a great job with all of the music. He captured the emotion of each scene very well, and I really felt like I was in a storybook or animated movie with the gang's Scrunch tale. The music and sound effects convey that this is not a television special but a big-budget movie.

On the topic of Wooton, as already suggested by my comments on the Arctic Blast song, he was rather annoying here. Too much snorting and too many failed jokes ("No, by a mailbox--that's an excellent hudiling place"? "That was just Bing Crosby singing for a colonel"? Were those comments really funny?). On the flip side, Eugene really shone in this episode. Not only did he sing the lead on the best songs of the episode, but he also was endearing as perhaps the best character of The Scrunch That Stole Thanksgiving (although Connie's Katie Poo-Magloo wasn't bad, either). His Abominable Turkey was a very likeable bad guy! And then there's Eugene's banter with Connie, which was quite enjoyable. The first scenes of the show with just Whit, Connie, Eugene, and Wooton were a definite highlight.

This show reminds me of an episode earlier this season, "Wooton's Broken Pencil Show," in that it is an experimental show, unlike anything that AIO has ever done (or at least has ever done in one 25-minute show). AIO needs to create shows which take a few chances in order to keep things fresh, and "A Thankstaking Story" definitely sticks out from most of the other album 52 episodes because it's different. It approaches its source material(s) without coming across as lazy or (overly) weird like "A Thanksgiving Carol" at times does.

But I had hoped for more enjoyment from this episode. On first listen, "A Thankstaking Story" contained few laughs, no emotional punch, and just a little bit of warmth for me. I was hoping for laugh-out-loud humor and maybe even a lump in my throat, but after listening, all I thought was, "well, that was kind of cute, I guess." My expectations were just a little too high, and it remains to be seen how I'll feel about it in a few years. Will it grow on me, like "Odyssey Sings" did (my original verdict was that it was "just a long advertisement in a well-written show," which I still think is true but no longer matters when I listen to the show)? I can quite easily see it fitting alongside the other AIO Thanksgiving specials, as it is probably as entertaining as "B-TV: Thanks" and arguably is the most poignant of the four Thanksgiving shows (except for "Thank You, God," of course). And for future listenings I shall know what to expect, and won't be disappointed when Wooton does Elvis, Whit takes his rhyming to the extreme, and Connie doesn't make me cry.

Rating: 7/10 (But possibly higher on repeat listenings, especially in comparison to the other album 52 shows)

Best line: "Light the lamp, not the turkey! Light the lamp, not the turkey!" Great reference to one of my favorite Christmas movies! :-D